Food budget £12.50 a week - help please!

VickyV

Hi Crisp,

Not got much to add to the fab suggestions already posted but I use a couple of tricks that might help.

Pad minced beef out with green lentils (about 200g dry per 500g mince) - it doubles the volume, adds fibre and you don't really notice. I made 3lb mince do 8 meals for 4 (2 shepherds pies, 3 chillis and 3 bologneses) last time I batch cooked.

When making a meal with veg (not cabbagey things), chuck the peelings in a pan and boil up for a while for a good stock. Chuck in any bones or bits of 'unusable' carcass/meaty bits if you have any and some herbs. Boil some more, strain and use as soup base. Free and nicer than packet stock!

Pad out meaty meals with cheap veg - frozen is fine.

Mysupermarket.co.uk is a great resource if you have a few shops nearby - includes ald1 now too!

I'd use the £50 to get the basics in so probably:

1x Tesco Everyday Value Bran Flakes (750g) 88p
1x Tesco Everyday Value Porridge Oats (1Kg) 75p
2x Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti (500g) 40p
2x Tesco Everyday Value Pasta Penne Quills (500g) 58p
1x Tesco Everyday Value Plain Flour (1.5Kg) 45p
1x Tesco Everyday Value Self Raising Flour (1.5Kg) 45p
1x Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Granulated Pure Cane Sugar (1Kg) 79p
2x Tesco Everyday Value Long Grain Rice (1Kg) 80p
1x Tesco Pearl Barley (500g) 55p
1x Natco Fine Corn Meal (1.5Kg) £1.79
1x Island Sun Red Kidney Beans (2Kg) £3.29
1x Indus Brown Lentils (2Kg) £2.00 was £2.99
1x Indus Chana Dal (2Kg) £2.00 was £2.99
1x Indus Chick Peas (2Kg) £2.00 was £2.99
Frozen
2x Tesco Everyday Value 3 Way Cook Chips (1.5Kg) £1.64
1x Tesco Everyday Value White Fish Fillets (520g) £1.68
1x Tesco Everyday Value Sausages (20 per pack - 1Kg) £1.50
1x Tesco Everyday Value Chicken Portions (2Kg) £3.50
1x Tesco Everyday Value Cauliiflower Florets (907g) £1.00
1x Tesco Everyday Value Mince (950g) £3.00
1x Tesco Everyday Value Mixed Vegetables (1.3Kg) £1.00
1x Tesco Everyday Value Garden Peas (1Kg) 98p
Tins, Jars & Cooking
1x Tesco Pure Vegetable Oil (1L) £1.25
2x Tesco Everyday Value Sliced Peaches in Light Syrup (410g) 70p
1x Tesco Everyday Value Table Salt (1Kg) 25p
1x Tesco Everyday Value Mayonnaise (500ml) 40p
2x Tesco Everyday Value Sardines in Tomato Sauce (120g) 68p
2x Tesco Distilled Vinegar (568ml) 88p
1x TRS Hot Madras Curry Powder (400g) £1.39
1x Natco Paprika Powder (400g) £1.69
1x Nishaan Minced Garlic (283g) £1.00 was £1.39
1x Dunn's River Dried Thyme (40g) 89p
2x Oriental & Pacific Tuna Flakes in Brine (185g) 98p
1x Tesco Dried Oregano (14g) 75p
1x Natco Whole Black Pepper (300g) £2.19
Drinks
1x Tesco Tea Bags (480) £5.50
1x Tesco Everyday Value Double Strength Orange Squash No Added Sugar (750ml) 42p

This should let you buy some bits of fruit and veg whilst building some stocks up and maybe doing some batch cooking.

Sorry for the rambling post but hope it helps a little!

Vicky x

Skinnylatte

I use a farm shop for my potatos, £4 for a big sack which lasts several months if I keep it in a dark place.

carlymummy

Charlton_King wrote: »

Was just wondering out of idle curiosity.

Could it still be done? A meal for two for 50p..?

The cheapest I could come up with was Mr A smartprice spaghetti with their pasta sauce which would cost 59p not the healthiest meal but cheap enough and plenty to feed 2 people.


To OP I really hope things improve for you and how lovely to have such helpful kind friends and family, when we have a very low food budget I always use ideas from this board such a help when times are tough x

Ryuu

I love Lečo (Lecho in English, apparently by wiki), it's super quick and easy, cheap, quite light and delicious.

But you have to use lard or butter, otherwise it's not as tasty...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecho

The simplest form: tomatoes, green bell paprika, onion, lard, salt, ground black pepper, bread

However I often add 1 egg (for 1 batch - 2-3portions) and mushrooms (self-collected from forest - another possible saving).

Fruball

It was kind of your relative to gift you £50. I would get a £5 voucher for one of the supermarkets and put it away safely so, if you happen to desperately need it, you have £5 to spend on food on a rainy day

Tink_04

Can you batch make a tomato sauce for the freezer to have with pasta, that way you could add sausage, chicken pieces or cheese when you have it x

dorothyjeffery

do you have an Iceland nearby?? i get there as they are opening in the morning - you have to be quick as it flies off the shelves - and their fresh meat reductions are brilliant. half price for whatever is going out of date that day. freeze it quick. or cook it quick. but dont buy the reduced chicken portions. YUUUUUK. whole chickens and everything else, is fine. whole chickens, big enough for 2 days were £1.50 each. a pack of 5 or 6 pork chops, enough for several meals was £1.50. a pack of lambs liver, plenty for 2 was 50p. minced beef, a double pack, for £1.50.and plenty for 4 or 6 servings. i go every day, because some days there isnt anything, but other days there is tons. and not just meat. a very big box of fresh tomatoes, one tomato was squashed so i got the whole box for 75p. split it all up into small bags, - 4 bags and into the freezer.

its worth a look if you have the store locally. but you have to be there early - first one through the door!!!

lindsaygalaxy

Please post your SOA so people can see if they can save you money anywhere. Also do consider a food bank- no one needs to know, but again it will help you have some things saved by for a rainy day.

recovering_spendaholic

I think that Farmfoods is a good place to get bargains if you shop savvy. They sell loads of processed carp, but their milk is cheap, and you can get 15 eggs for £1. They do three big bags of various mix and match frozen veg and fruit for £2. At the moment their Youngs extra large fish fillets are only £1 for two huge fillets, and if you have it with a slice of bread and peas it is a lovely meal. Their Hovis loaves are 2 for £1.60. Sugar is 59p for a kilo. Flour is also cheap but I can't remember how much it is.

Porridge is a great breakfast and is super cheap using value or basics oats. It's nice with jam on if you have any, otherwise a sprinkle of salt and a spoonful of sugar is yummy!

If you have flour, sugar, marg and oats you can make Twinks hobnobs (recipe is on here - it asks for golden syrup but I leave it out and they still turn out nice!) you'd get loads of biscuits for really cheap,

I hope you manage to do it and that things improve soon.

fatpiggy

melanzana wrote: »

Isn't it just so sad in this day and age, that people are left with so little for food.

I'm sure there are people much worse off, but it's a disgrace. I wish you well OP.

I can't add anything really to the other great contributors, except...and I hope no one has a go at me for this....

I am in the lucky position of not having to be frugal at all. But man plans and god laughs...so I try once a month to live on £20 a week for food only.

I have to say the challenge is so eye opening, and doable. It's a lesson for me, in case I ever had to do it. Please don't have a go at me. I understand how hard it is for many.

Anyway, for the frugal week it's

Pasta,
Tin toms
Eggs, eggs, and eggs.
Bread,
Milk
Bacon bits Aldi
Tins of sardines
Cheese
Veg, super six Aldi.
And other odds and ends.

Comes to in or around the twenty quid

Bear in mind that I have a store cupboard of herbs and spices and have butter and stuff in the fridge.

It's a great lesson in making do.

And I enjoy the meals...it's the challenge I enjoy!

I hope I haven't made you all mad or anything.

Well, I wouldn't call it a disgrace because we don't really know what are the circumstances that the OP finds themselves with a very small food budget. I spent 12 years living on just £10 a week because I spent an absolute fortune on buying life-saving drugs for my pet (and I really mean a fortune!). Being single is an added burden and my wage wasn't huge and I didn't have any pay rises beyond the annual inflationary one for most of that period, so £10 a week in 1998 bought a whole lot more than £10 a week in 2012!! I ate largely vegetarian, shopped almost entirely in Aldi and Lidl, the local market at closing time and haunted the reduced isles. Hubby is going to have to learn to eat fruit and veg (make soup, you can hide anything there!) and OP needs to eat more carbs. You won't die of it. I was never a big cake/biscuit eater anyway, but you can bake plenty of cheap things in half an hour at very little cost. I never starved and actually, was very healthy. Bulk things out with lentils, pearl barley, rolled oats. Could you pair up with a friend/neighbour to do the shopping and get to your local Aldi, take advantage of bog-offs?